Fracking operations typically involve setting an isolation device and perforating and fracking above the set device. This process is repeated as the producing zone is perforated and fractured in a bottom up direction. At the conclusion of the perforating and fracturing of the producing zone the plugs need to be removed so that production can begin. Milling out what could be dozens of plugs can be very time consuming and thus expensive because production is delayed and the debris that is generated in the milling operation needs to be removed either with circulation or with capture devices to collect the debris.
To aid the milling process the plugs can be made of non-metallic or composite materials. While this technique is workable, there was still a lot of time spent to mill out even the softer bridge plugs and remove that milling debris from the wellbore.
In the past there have been plugs used that are milled out as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,533,721. Some are forcibly broken to open a passage such as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,903. Other designs created a plug with material that responded to a magnetic field as the field was applied and removed when the field was removed. This design was described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,926,089 and 6,568,470. In a multi-lateral application a plug was dissolved from within the whipstock to reopen the main bore after the lateral was completed. This is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,593. Barriers that assist in extending telescoping passages and then are removed for access to fracture the formation are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,424. Longitudinally extending radially expanded packers to get them to release is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,661,470.
In a variation of the above designs US Publication 2013/0000914 discusses a thin wall mandrel that is then expanded to enlarge the passage through the mandrel as a way of increasing production after sequential fracturing is over. While this design addressed the need for a larger bore diameter for subsequent production, the design still had issues with collapse resistance when the packer was set and the pressures used in fracturing were applied to the annular space causing an excessive compressive collapse force on the frack packer mandrel.
More recently a design to temporarily support a shear component in a shear plane has been described by William Hered and Jason Barnard in an application called Reinforced Shear Components and Methods of Using Same. Here a disc was interposed in the shear plane and retained in position against a bias force. At a predetermined time the bias force was allowed to move the disc out of the shear plane so that the structure was weakened in the shear plane and the desired failure could occur in the shear plane to release two members to move relatively.
Another design seeks to address the need for compressive strength against external pressures that would otherwise cause a collapse while at the same time addressing the later need for a larger flow diameter for subsequent production where the fracking was done and there no longer was a need to hold back against compressive collapse forces from outside the mandrel. This is accomplished without a need for expansion. A tubular insert is made of structural tubular materials preferable controlled electrolytic materials or CEM. Controlled electrolytic materials have been described in US Publication 2011/0136707 and related applications filed the same day. The related applications are incorporated by reference herein as though fully set forth. After the packer is set in tension and subjected to fracturing forces it no longer needs high collapse resistance and the CEM sleeve is removed to make a larger flow diameter for subsequent production. Other applications are envisioned where a tubular structure responds to differing pressure conditions at different times in a service life. For example in the fracking situation the anticipated tensile load for production is about 30,000 to 50,000 pounds force and for fracturing can be orders of magnitude higher.
Various plug designs for subsequent removal by a variety of techniques are illustrated in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 5,607,017; 5,479,986; 7,093,664; 7,168,494; 7,353,879; 7,673,692; 7,958,940; 7,997,337; 8,151,895; 8,056,638; 8,235,102; 8,256,521; 8,272,446; 8,291,969; 8,322,449; 8,327,926; 2012/0152524; 2012/0318513; 2013/0206425; 2013/02481945.
Plug removal despite the use of composite components or components that dissolve can still lead to an incomplete removal of the plugs causing operational problems when going on production. Typically, plug design involving slips and a longitudinally compressed resilient seal such as rubber annular rings present such situations of incomplete removal. This is because the slips must withstand significant mechanical loads under the pressure differentials that are seen during the fracturing process. What is needed and provided by the present invention is a new design for the frack plugs where the structural body parts such as the mandrel can be made of readily disintegrating material such as CEM and the seal material is granular but with sufficient structural integrity for running in to the desired location and remaining structurally sound. However, when the desired location is reached the granular material is reconfigured, generally with axial compressive force to form a cohesive seal that can withstand the pressure differentials seen in the fracking process. The reconfiguration allows a reordering of the initial shape with sufficient residual binding for the granular material so that axial compression leaves much of the granular material cohesive to the point that on compression it stays together enough to be compressed into an impervious annular shape. The advantage lies in the speed of removal of such a plug without resorting to drilling. The body materials are disintegrated with fluids introduced into the borehole. Exposure to wellbore conditions or materials brought into the borehole also weakens the binder for the granular material such that the undermining of the structural components coupled with the weakening of the binder and the granular nature of the material acting as the seal allows for a rapid degradation of the seal material into a loose granular pieces that can be readily circulated out of the borehole or alternatively allowed to drop to the borehole bottom or a further downhole location, depending on the configuration of the borehole. Those skilled in the art will better appreciate these and other aspects of the present invention from the detailed description and the associated drawing s while recognizing that the full scope of the invention can be obtained from the appended claims.